Category: spiritual awakening

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The wise heart

So I’ve noticed something that has been incredibly helpful….

Sometimes as we work through different emotions (meaning staying present and openly and directly experiencing whatever comes up) we can find ourselves in a place where we aren’t sure what we are feeling.  It may be experienced as numbness or confusion or just a sense of being disconnected and disoriented.  This is where many people start to come ‘out of inquiry’… because the regular reference point of mind (as the ‘knower’) is no longer able to discern what is going on, freaks out and tries to run like hell.  But here’s what I say:

Stay there.

Breathe.

Just stay open and curious.

What you’re experiencing doesn’t need a name,

it doesn’t need to be classified

it doesn’t need to be attached to a certain memory

or even understood.

It just needs to be experienced with the company of your full attention.

So breathe.

Your job is to notice as much as you can, as fully as you can, without armour.

Naked and fearless

don’t bring in anything but you.

Open yourself to whatever is here and gently ask

and what is this?

Whether you suddenly fall out of this numb confusion

onto the sharp point of  a memory

or not

doesn’t matter.

All that’s needed is the unwavering presence of your wise heart

which can only be where you are

always.

So much love and blessings today, L.

Click here to read ‘Loneliness as the Supreme Teacher’ (by Kamia Shepherd)

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Conscious Parenting – The Work (with Dr. Kathryn Jefferies)

Hello friends,

Well, today’s webinar turned into a lesson of patience and surrender ;).  Kathryn Jefferies and I had to just laugh because it seems that the technological gods are just not often on our side!!  So we apologize again for not being able to host live today and give you the opportunity to be facilitated through The Work.  We are working on finding the perfect webinar platform so we can offer this (glitch free) in the near future!  Thank you for your patience and understanding – we were looking forward to connecting (and reconnecting with you all).

We went ahead with an interview where Kathryn describes the work and how it can be applied in a parenting context.  She facilitated me around the issue of feeling shame after ‘losing my cool’ with my kids.  This Work is so profound – in today’s case, it truly gave me the chance to go back into a difficult moment and experience it in a completely different way.

Unfortunately a delay can be heard in my voice from about halfway through (sorry!!) – (isn’t that ridiculous though?? must be mercury retrograde starting early…!)  Despite the delay, I think this one may help other parents consider staying open to different perspectives that may be helpful (and liberating).

Here’s the recording (it starts 25 seconds in):

Kathryn is available for counselling, which I highly recommend – you can find her here.

All the best to you – we hope the next one is live where we can really meet and interact with you!

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The Divine Grump

Sometimes even the Grump can lead us to greater awareness…. You know those days when you just wake up grumpy?  I had one of those recently, complete with a dark mind full of complaints darting around like fish appearing out of the murk. There was a loud and convincing story about all the work that would attack me as soon as I got out of bed and even though I knew I was indulging in some wallowing, I couldn’t quite shake it.

Then out of nowhere, I was hit by a sudden flood of total compassion and acceptance towards this ‘Grump’, coupled with a playful ‘jeesh, what a ‘GRUMP!!’ It was like one moment, the Grump was who I was, and then the next, the walls around that identity fell away and I was there standing in the centre of that role but seeing it had nothing to do with who I am in the least.  The presence of this sudden awareness and playfulness towards the Grump caught me off guard in a way that is feeling more and more familiar- as did the state of TOTAL acceptance and even delight due to the hilarity of its antics. This was so much deeper and genuine than the times when the Grump had decided to try to ‘look on the bright side’ and not be grumpy anymore…

So, the message here is that the Grump can’t think its way to clear seeing.  The Grump (and all its other moods and modes) is who we believe ourselves to be. We think we are navigating from ‘inside’ the Grump.  The Grump is the one who thinks it can and will ‘wake’ up one day and ‘see it all’.  But the Grump stays – the mind stays.  This is a huge clue of where not to keep searching.  If the question ‘where else is there to look’ arises… good!!  Ask that question and just listen and notice.  When the mind starts to narrate the experience (and probably with a voice that sees a ‘failure’ of ‘finding anything’) notice that too… stay with this alert noticing…

I think all of us who are on this path of awakening go through this.  While our hearts may lead us to the path, our egos kick in and start to interpret, process and ‘practice’.  This is natural – this is exactly what we’ve been conditioned to do and we do it well.  We hear that we need to ‘accept’ and so we then ‘try’ to will ourselves into accepting the darker aspects of mind and personality that comes with our bodies.  We try to accept all elements of ‘mind’ with mind.  This can fuel frustration and feelings of self-defeat for many of us because as well-intentioned and genuine this effort is, we can’t will our way into true acceptance.

A point may come where we start ‘practicing acceptance’ mentally, but in reality we haven’t actually had the experience of full acceptance (thus repressing our resistance out of our conscious awareness….pushing us deeper into unconsciousness). And then we wonder why we are still so bound to this finite identity when we should ‘know better’.  Ah…. the despair of the path…. but this is the juiciness of it…. when we see all of this – and can tell the truth about it and admit that we ‘don’t know’ ‘how’ to ‘do this’, we enter into a state of humility and openness.  This is the state that makes us receptive to the possibility of directly and clearly (and instantly) recognizing something that rings with the sweetness of a deep truth at your core.

Sending playful compassion to the Grump in you,

Laura xx

ps  I have put up a calendar on my ‘private and group meetings’ page if you’d like to book an appointment (I’d love to work with you- even one session can poke some serious holes in your belief in yourself as being the ‘Grump’!!).